St. John's grads prepare to volunteer in communities worldwide

The Benedictine Volunteer Corps program allows St. John's University graduates to volunteer for a year at monasteries and surrounding communities. They are trained at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville.

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St. John’s University graduates and Benedictine Volunteer Corps trainees (from left) JD Quinby, Alex Forster, Drake Lawrence and Adam Bachmeier pack up glassware and pottery in the monastery’s refectory to prepare for remodeling. A group of 22 St. John’s BVC volunteers will be sent to serve monasteries and surrounding communities around the world.(Photo: Kimm Anderson, kanderson@stcloudtimes.coM)Buy Photo

Story Highlights

Almost a dozen men in the St. John's program will be volunteering at assigned sites around the world

This year's number of participants is the highest in the program that began a decade ago

Volunteers are expected to pray with, live with and work for their monasteries and communities

COLLEGEVILLE Cody Lynch has lived in St. Cloud his entire life, but soon, the recent St. John's University graduate will be far from home.

He graduated on Sunday with a communications degree, and he began a two-week training session the next day at St. John's Abbey as part of the Benedictine Volunteer Corps.

"I wanted to try some teaching," said Lynch, who will be spending a year volunteering as a teacher at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, New Jersey.

The volunteer program sends St. John's graduates to help serve monasteries and surrounding communities worldwide; the graduates rank their preferences of assignments.

"They are accepted into the program, and then we decide where the best fit is," said Brother Paul Richards, former director of The St. John's Boys' Choir.

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St. John's University graduates Mark Steingraeber (left) and Jacob Helmer slice tomatoes for lunch Tuesdayin Emmaus Hall on the campus. They're in training for a 12-month stint in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps, which sends 22 St. John’s graduate to monasteries around the world. The two are going to Tanzania in July.
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Record number

This year, 22 men will travel to 11 monasteries — the highest number since the program founded by St. John's Abbey in Collegeville began almost a decade ago.

"They're growing up now with an attitude and culture of volunteerism," Richards said of the graduates. "In fact, many of them have to fulfill some community service works (as part of their schooling)."

As part of their training, volunteers will live and dine together, study the history and the Rule of St. Benedict, attend daily prayer with the monastic community and have assigned work periods.

"The purpose of the retreat is to prepare themselves prayerfully for what they are about to do ... and to familiarize them with monastic, Benedictine culture," he said.

The Benedictine monk welcomed the young men on Monday to the campus of St. John's.

"We work with the students to develop a culture of global awareness and responsibility," said Richards, who has a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in choral conducting.

"They say that this was really a transformative experience for them, and it has to do with becoming familiar with a new culture — both the monastic, Benedictine culture and if they're in a foreign country," he said.

Richards said BVC participants apply to the program not because of a soft job market but because they want to take advantage of a "life-changing opportunity to help others" that is made possible by donations.

"Part of the liberal arts experience is teaching critical thinking skills ... so it just made a lot of sense to do a little bit of exploration in a different area and do something that was a new experience for me," Lynch said.

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Lifetime opportunity

Drake Lawrence has never been out of the country, but the 22-year-old English major from Kasson will be headed to Mount St. Benedict in Tunapuna, Trinidad

"At St. John's, I've grown to have a great appreciation for the Benedictine values, but on campus, it's very easy to show these values — hospitality and fellowship," Lawrence said.

He said he has grown to appreciate Benedictine values while at St. John's and would like the chance to apply those values in other places in the world.

Monasteries in Guatemala, Colombia, Italy and Spain were recently added to the program; Richards said the culture or remoteness of the assigned site can be challenging for volunteers.

"If they're in Hanga in Tanzania — being the only white people in the area — they're not used to that, and having to do with foreign languages," Richards said.

More than a hundred people have been through the Benedictine Volunteer Corps program, according to Richards, and the program continues to increase in popularity.

"They will work, whether it's answering the phone at Sant'Anselmo in Rome ... or whether it's teaching English as a second language in India," he said.

Past works of volunteers have included building a library in Guatemala out of plastic bottles stuffed with garbage, farming in Ireland, feeding the poor in Chicago and caring for orphans in Kenya.

"Seeing something different will be cool," Lynch said. "But it will also be really great to experience a new culture and get to see just a whole new lifestyle that I'm not used to."

Sponsoring a volunteer

Volunteers in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps are able to volunteer for a year at monasteries and surrounding communities in need worldwide because of donations; the cost to sponsor a volunteer is $6,000.

The funds provide transportation for the volunteer to and from his assigned site, health coverage and a monthly stipend of $300, and sponsors will receive regular updates from the volunteers.

To learn more about the program, visit saintjohnsabbey.org/bvc. To sponsor a volunteer, call Brother Paul Richards at 320-363-3850 or email him at prichards@csbsju.edu.